That’s amore
August 15, 2011
12:00 am
My boyfriend and I considered adopting a roomba together once, but ultimately decided our relationship wasn’t at that level yet.
Hopefully next week I’ll actually have time to sit down and draw a comic without work and cons and travel and anthologies to distract me.
Discussion (137) ¬
Hey, that’s no joke! If you adopt a Roomba and then the relationship falls apart, who knows what kind of robopsychological damage you could do to a young bot’s CPU. The Skynet potential is huge!
Yeah! Your Roomba needs proper guidance to be a fully functioning robo-member of your household! You have to clear all moveable obstacles in its path, help it vent any dirty secrets and troubles it has accumulated on the way, even liberate it from any shackles that cause it to doubt its self-worth and usefulness now and then!
You could always wipe their memory.
If Skywalker had only wiped his droid’s memories, he’d have had a lot less grief.
Ah, the utter tranquility of moisture farming.
That’s the kind of things that lead into machine revolution
In the (slightly paraphrased) immortal words of Carl, companion of Vexxarr: “The difference between a homicidal killbot and a Roomba is a working laser.”
Something about this comic’s style seems…… off?..
I did it in Flash while I was waiting to get picked up at work instead of photoshop and I’ve slept about two of the past 48 hours.
Psssh, who cares if it ‘looks different’. It’s great!
I love your sense of humour, coela. That’s why I keep coming back :3
Is Jonesy and the Commander an item now? =o
Yep, since Valentine’s Day of this year.
Just because they shared a (drunken if I remember correctly) kiss, it doesn’t have to mean they got together.
*shrug*
Coela’s characters, Coela’s storyline. I’m just happy I found this awesome comic.
They’re together. The kiss, and at Hawke’s party he had his arm over her shoulders. And this pose with her conspiring grin. It’s love.
Naw, they were sober on V-Day, just drunk after the Dragon Age Bar night.
Naw to the love or the drunk?
Naw to the drunk. The love was real… Tho i think the commander was pain-drunk after beating his own ass into a pulp.
I think it looks great – I love the softer outlines, and the overall framing design where the panels in the bottom right are balanced by the visual interest of the children in the top left. You’re heading into Bill Watterson territory.
The characters are adaptable enough to translate between styles. Chalk me up as one who I won’t complain if you experiment freely from week to week.
it’s been obvious since the first comic:p
I reckon..
I think he’s talking about the fact that the commander is laying in a field of pretty flowers.
There’s no shading, for one. Gives it a brighter, more cartoony look.
It’s happy. Respect the happiness!
It reminds me of colourised versions of newspaper comics. Like when they’d be put in a book or online. Also the Commander is so hot! lol
And suddenly, Jonesy was the most relatable character.
And a great armpit-warmer.
They get lonely if you don’t let them loose often enough. It was all for the best, I’m sure.
Daww. I really like Sarah. She’s sweet yet realistic.
It’s funny because the Commander’s a guy, and we all know how that joke goes, but he’s obviously a committed guy.
He will marry you and marry you right. And be a good husband and father too, while still being incredibly rough around the edges.
And every single part of that is what makes him manly as hell.
I wish I could upvote you.
That is how he is now. What was he like before the divorce? I’d wager not so wonderful.
Well, let’s look at it this way:
I was a devoted husband in the Air Force. I did my duty, and I never cheated or lied to her. She turned around when I got out of the Air Force and divorced me to get married to another guy IN THE AIR FORCE. We thought we had something, but we divorced because our marriage just didn’t work. Good together, but not great together.
My point? Sometimes people just don’t work when together. They try, but it doesn’t work out. I think the Commander is a good guy through and through, but he and his ex just didn’t work out. Maybe she cheated on him or left him for a guy IN THE AIR FORCE or something.
Actually, we did get to see why Commander and his wife broke up and it didn’t involve cheating on either’s part. What happened to you sucked, but no need to project.
Assuming Commander wasn’t inventing colourful narration :P
And I’m assuming we’ll never know all the real reasons she left him. These things are not so black and white.
Well, right. But I’m pretty sure she didn’t leave him for another guy at the Manly Guy headquarters from what we’ve seen.
I’m assuming he wasn’t always at Manly Guy headquarters. That he had another life that slowly evolved to that.
….Although really, all he is is a character, so if the author doesn’t know about it, it didn’t happen.
Which is not to say they (the characters) don’t keep secrets or surprise us every once in a while. I have a character who I refer to as The Captain because he won’t freakin’ tell me his gorram name!
Oh, I know why they broke up. And what his name is.
^ :O
At least she didn’t cheat on you with a CANADIAN GUY.
That just means there’s someone better out there for you, and her. You just haven’t met her yet. Good luck and I hope you both forgive each other and move on.
If no one can tell when he’s being facetious, it gives him a lot more wiggle room to say things he means without getting in trouble.
Dude isn’t really lookin’ for another wife anytime soon, he likes ’em low maintenance and independent. (Unfortunately I haven’t had time to get to a short arc I wanted to do regarding Jonesey’s tendency to get bored of her interests every few weeks and move onto something else, which is a shame. I gotta find time to script things up ahead of time like I used to, I haven’t been happy with quality of this comic for months)
That somewhat explains the roller-derby.
That and them bitches aren’t playing around…
Good idea, you may find other things you want to include.
I love this with the fire of a thousand suns. I love Jonesy and the Commander together. This is brilliant and adorable.
I’ve thought about getting a Roomba now that I’m living on my own, but I’ve been hesitant about it. Not only because of cost, but also because I don’t know how well they work, how well my cat would handle it, and how well I would handle the random annoyance of it starting to vacuum on its own at inopportune times.
Anyone that owns one mind answering a few questions?
– How well do they handle pet hair?
– How often do they need to be emptied if working in an average sized living room/den area? (I know this one is a YMMV question, but gimme an estimate)
– How often do they get stuck under furniture, in awkwardly shaped areas, etc?
– How well do they do in high-pile/shag carpeting?
– Do they actually work on hardwood/tile, or do they end up blowing the dirt around like most regular vacuum cleaners?
– How well do they handle larger items, such as cat hairballs?
I’d appreciate any answers. I absolutely hate having to vacuum, but I don’t want to end up wasting a couple hundred dollars on something with high hopes only to be smacked in the face with the cold reality of it not working right.
Last week, my boyfriend and I adopted a 400 series Roomba. It was on sale on Woot and we figured at best our cat would want to chase it. We were pleasantly surprised and quite impressed. We have hardwood and tile floors, and it actually does a surprisingly good job because it doesn’t just suck in dirt, it has a little round sweepy brush like a weed whacker that brushes dirt into it’s hungry little mouth. Once in a great while you see solid clumps of cat hair which we call “Roomba droppings” but those are easy to just pick up and toss out. I empty it after every use (over a trash can, opening it releases dirt. My boyfriend made this mistake).
Haven’t tried it on carpet at all yet, so not sure about that. But as for getting stuck? It’s only gotten stuck once, We moved my guitar and it went along its merry way. and it doesn’t have problems with small bumps between surfaces.
It doesn’t turn on on its own, at least ours doesn’t. You charge it over night, put it in a room, press the button, and watch it go, the automated part is where it “searches for the dirt” like a hungry hungry hippo.
Our biggest problem is naming it. Do we want it to be Space Roomba (Spaaaace) or Roomba Stark/Baratheon/Targaryen/Lannister. . . if we do the later we’ll need another one to play Game of Roombas.
That’s good to know. If I manage to get one I’m going to use it for my living room and kitchen, which has a transition from carpet to tile where they meet. My worry about it getting stuck is that my couch seems to sit a bit higher off the floor than most, about 3 or 4 inches, and I don’t want to have to move my couch because the Roomba managed to get under there but couldn’t get out. And I also have a recliner sitting in the corner that is only open from one side, and I’d be worried about the Roomba getting stuck back there because of bad pathing or something.
I’ve got another question that I should have listed in my first set, but didn’t think about it at the time – how well do they handle meeting a downward staircase? My house was built in the 50’s with the basement being intended as a garage, and my living space is all on the second floor. Not too unusual, until you get to the fact that there is no door on my staircase, just an open landing that makes up the transition from living room to kitchen. I don’t have kids, and my cat can climb stairs, so I don’t have a baby gate or anything like that. I figure I’d probably need to get one, wouldn’t I?
The avoid drops like that, so you wouldn’t have to worry about it falling down the stairs.
They handle pet hair amazingly. They will need to be emptied about once for a regular living room, twice if it’s been a while. They really don’t get stuck on furniture. They work amazingly on hardwood and tile. I wouldn’t recommend using them on high-pile/shag carpeting.
Well, I only have a shag throw-rug, so that works out fine. Most regular vacuums don’t work well on shag unless you’re using the hose with something like a stiff brush attachment anyways. I was kinda hoping, though.
We named ours Jarvis, but it is quite blind. It gets stuck under one of our cabinets a lot and after it’s done it’s had trouble finding its docking station. Fortunately, it’s always either out in plain sight or just under that one cabinet, so it’s easy to find after losing power. But ours is a pretty old model to begin with.
It sounds like one of those old dogs still trying to do his job chasing squirrels off the lawn, but he’s too blind and deaf to effectively chase them anymore :c
Yeah, but we still love it. It works hard and still gets the job done anyway.
I had a dog that got to be like that. He was a black tri-color collie named Sarge, and he was born to another collie of ours 2 weeks before I turned 2 so him and his brother(a sable Merle with two-colored eyes that were the opposite of his otherwise exact twin) turned out to be an extra-special birthday present when we kept them out of the whole group. His brother that we kept got killed during deer season 1996, but Sarge stuck with us until 2006 when we had to put him down. He wandered off one day and disappeared for nearly a week, which was unusual since he wouldn’t even disappear for that long when he was young and both him and his brother would run off together(we lived in the woods and didn’t keep them chained up). Then we got a call from a neighbor after a particularly bad storm saying that they found our dog in a storm ditch in their yard. He was still alive and above water, but he ditch was about 2 feet deep and he couldn’t get out on his own. I had to climb down into the ditch and carry him out. It was so sad. I felt like that guy in Hamburger Hill whose just kind of vacantly carrying his buddy’s body back down the hill on his own, not paying attention to all the stuff going on around him. We ended up getting him home and giving him a bath and everything, and then a couple days later he still wasn’t standing up so my mom took him to the vet while I was at school. I came home expecting to see him, but my mom was just sitting on the couch staring at the wall and she told me that she put him down. She said that the vet told her that everything except his heart was completely shot. His kidneys were failing, he was blind, he was hoarse, his lungs had fluid in them, and the reason he couldn’t stand was because the muscles in his legs had separated from the bone. And then she told me that she let them take care of the body and I remember going berserk, because we had always said we would bury him on my grandparent’s farm.
For as long as that dog was able to move, he would try to chase any deer that came into our yard. And if you played dead near him he would always come over and start barking, and pawing, and nudging you with his nose trying to get you to do something. If you didn’t do anything, he would just lay down with his head on you back and every so often would bark for a few seconds or nudge you. He was never trained to do that kind of stuff, he just did it. It didn’t matter that it took him a few minutes to stand up and walk 10 feet to get to you, if you were to lay down in a way that was different from the way you slept or the way you laid down watching TV or something, he would be up and over at your side barking and pawing.
He was truly a dog’s dog and man’s best friend. And collies will always hold a very special place in my heart because of him.
What a great dog. Thank you for sharing this.
Woly bunk… Looks like we have a roomba forum on our hands folks!
I should really read all posts before making a post of my own. It stops me from having to multi-post. Dear unruly… It sounds like you had more than just a pet. You had a family member, and I can relate to that… Stay strong buddy, and Sarge will live on in your heart and in your mind.
I’m suddenly filled with a burning desire to write a slash fanfic about the Commander. THE THINGS THIS COMIC DO TO ME.
Fanfiction.net apparently lacks a MGDMT category. Fix this.
Oh teh ironies.
I felt more than heard the sarcasm. LOL
That’s me! That’s me forever and forever!
hahaha, this one was funny
Well, we have 2 huskies with my fiancee and the only place where I can really rest is at my work xD Well the another one is 1 year old and another one 3 months so I hope they will calm down when they grow up more… I hope, cute little creatures tough.
Love the look on her face in the last panel – kinda evil and almost pleased/”exellent…” And I like the commanders contented face in the same panel XD
There is so much to love about this comic, I don’t even know where to begin.
I do kind of want a roomba. Even fish get needy after awhile.
Also, I’d like to point out that the Commander has joined Mr. Darcy in the League of Fictional Gentleman Helping Me Develop Unrealstic Expectations of Men And Relationships. I hope you’re happy. (Personally, I’m totally okay with this. I could definitely choose worse role models.)
There’s nothing wrong with setting your standards high. With a billion guys out there, someone is bound to meet all your requirements (or fall just below, which should be good enough).
Oh, FOR REAL, Stacy. Add Tennant’s Doctor Who to that list and I’m right on board.
S’like they say, find a guy who’s as polite to the waiter as he is to you and you’re probably good.
Find a guy who’s a gentleman to other men. If he acts with politeness, courtesy and graciousness when sex is off the table then that’s who he really is.
If he’s only chivalrous to women he’s probably a wanker who only acts nice when it’s in his best interests to do so.
Ahaha, I dunno, I don’t want to deny a guy the right to be an asshole with his buddies. You know, to a point and all, you can usually tell the difference between douchbaggery among bros and legitimate jerkdom.
Well… politeness, courtesy and graciousness in the context of male culture.
I think you know what I mean. :P
Which basically means “don’t steal his beer, don’t steal his women, and no curb-stomping without extreme provocation.”
That seems pretty accurate.
Though sometimes douchebaggery among bros and legitimate jerkdom arent always easy to tell apart. Some people mistake brodom douchebaggery and actual jerkdom.
http://5secondfilms.com/watch/getting_to_know_her_ii_know_harder/ this is relevant and funny.
Hmmm…. So I’m guessing I’m the only girl who gets STONE COLD SCARED at the prospect of an injured in the line of duty super intelligent sociable Marine who was trained as a knight and is therefore chivalrous and also adorably cute, tall, and muscular who likes me alot? Not to mention blonde and blue eyed.
….Yeaaaah I have my problems.
But heeeeey now I have a girlfriend who is WONDERFUL and I’m sure he can do better.
*dreamy sigh* Mr. Darcy…
I enjoy Sarah’s “me gusta” face in the last panel.
You write “That’s amore” and I think of the hilarious couple meme you did involving Daggett and Blue.
Oh god I wish I could find me a huge hunk of man like the Commander to just… sprawl against. I love this pair of people so much. Not in the least because my name is also Sara. ;)
Ummf, jean creases. That’s all.
This is my new favorite, right in front of Mr. Fish’s evolution.
I kind of want to cosplay the commander now. But I’d need to gain, like, 60 lbs.
And not being a woman would help, too.
But his boots and goggles are just so awesome.
There are always alternative world versions of people, too. You could be alternative universe Commander, where we’re all the opposite gender of what we are now.
That could work. Femmander Badass.
DO EEET.
I want the Commander’s shoes. And Jonesy’s shoes. Everyone in this comic has awesome footware.
I have a Roomba! My family even had a minor argument about what to name it! I wanted to name it Jarvis, but Mom wanted to name it Sohee or something. Something that means clean in Korean and sounded feminine. Ultimately, I won because Mom found herself calling it Jarvis all the time!
Jonesy looks evil in the last panel
Brave woman to but her face anywhere near a Man’s armpit.
also eventually she could forget to put batteries in if they use them. i will not claim to be a roomba specialist.
They go back to a little docking station and recharge themselves from what I understand.
They do! And they play victory music when they dock!
I kind of want to get one and hack it to play the Final Fantasy victory music when it docks with its house.
… and put a LED, animated, Pac-Man on the top of it. But that would mix the metaphor.
There is half an Internet of Roomba hacks. I’m sure someone’s come up with FF music.
Oh hell, seriously? Now *I* want one. But only if it could play Darth Vader’s leitmotif. Do they come in black? Could it be programmed to go “hohhhhccccchh, prrfsssssssh” while it vacuums?
Pretty sure they do. Hahah! Oh the mental images!
“Darth Vader, I accidentally knocked over the spider plant and now there’s dirt everywhere!”
“Kssshhh! WHAT?!” *force choke*
That’s an even better scenario if the spider plant is named Captain Needa.
It’s true. If you don’t take care of a Roomba it could go all GLaDOS on you.
Also, these two are adorable and I’m thinking that the Commander makes a surprisingly good pillow.
Damn, Commander sure does look nice and snuggly. And comfy. This is a good thing.
I love this comic with all my heart. It’s one of those things that speaks to me on a personal level, which is also why it’s so hard to describe to my friends why they should read it, because “IT IS AMAZING I LOVE IT” rarely seems to work as a hook on anybody. But it is, and I do.
The other thing I absolutely love about this comic is the readership. So many things on the internet have obnoxious, terrible readers, and I guess I just got so used to it that I didn’t know it could be like this–but the readers here are funny and interesting and usually not too mean to each other. ;p
Thanks for this little slice of the internet, Coela.
This right here. Every word of it.
I’m an entomologist and I approve of the little ones’ current activity :D
I fear our Roomba tried to suicide on our canines’ fur. The little spinny things jammed, the (plastic) bearings overheated, …yeah.
We need a version built… FOR MEN.
Question: What’s a roomba? *is clearly too young to know what that is*
Pet vacuum cleaners http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dweVBqei9LA
Awwww. The Flash does make it look a bit off compared to usual, but I likes it :) Also, how utterly relaxed the Commander looks in panel 1. Maybe it’s because their relationship isn’t really in-focus in the strip, but it seems much more realistic. Also, I love Jonesy’s pink-and-green sneakers.
Haha this’s week strip is just perfect.
Based on all the comments of women swooning, this is negatively effecting my self esteem and my current physical body shape.
Women love a six-pack but don’t want the keg. More love to go around, if you ask me…
Commander doesn’t really have a six-pack so much as a trim barrel-shaped torso. Basically just this body.
Semantics aside, I concur : swoon-worthy. Also, oh god, the hair. And kind of the goggles, too? If you can actually pull off regularly wearing an accessory that says “I might be called upon to do something awesome and possibly life-threatening at any moment”? Hot.
I know a guy who wears goggles on a regular basis in just that manner. He’s been doing it for years. He has a wall where he hangs the retired goggles. He is also a superhero in his spare time and generally a nice guy. No wonder my sister wants to marry him.
hoh geez, that is awesome. Captain riding on Mr.Fish.
roomba nice, easy pet and sorta cleans up after you instead of the other way around. Genius!
“My boyfriend and I considered adopting a roomba together once, but ultimately decided our relationship wasn’t at that level yet.”
…. Wait, are you a girl, or gay, or joking? Not that I have a problem with it (You’re strip is too awesome for such petty things), but reading that, it did occur to me that the closest thing I have in my mind of a mental image of you is…… a squid.
I read a comic, and I have absolutely no idea what gender the author is o_o
You can continue believing I’m a squid if you want, because it really doesn’t matter. I’m just an internet presence who feeds you comics once a week.
……… You should take a gander at Nerf Now!
I think you two will find… common ground. http://www.nerfnow.com/comic/560
Hehe. I now see a squid shooting ink with lots of pencils in the tentacles all ready to work on the comic for our enjoyment. However… it does look a tad annoyed.
Squids can have boyfriends too!
It’s really more of a coelacanth-squid mix.
…I’m not even sure what that would look like. Someone get SciFi on the job.
Girl. She’s got pics up on her dA. A girl with AWESOME hair.
GET A ROOMBA SO WE CAN PLAY WITH IT DO IT OMG I WILL BOMBARD YOUR APARTMENT JUST TO PLAY WITH IT.
My friend back east had one. That shit was fun to harass and watch it get all not-frustrated-because-its-an-inanimate-object-but-it-was-totally-frustrated. :V
Man, Jonesy has the best facial expressions. I love the look on her face in the last panel!
Haha I love this. I definitely am getting a roomba with my wife. I wish I could look like the Commander, but I’m his anti lol. Dark hair, belly, and short. Also, scream when stuff lands on me.
Referring to the comment on te delay: drink “MONSTER: absolute zero”. It’s healthier for you and pretty damn tasty too. :)
Those boots. I must have them.
Loving the casual steel capped boots
Gotta say Joney’s expression is pretty evil at the last panel.
My boyfriend and I recently moved to the next level in our relationship; we shared Google calendars.
So heartwarming c//:
You could always hold guest comic fillers to keep people entertained until you get a chance to draw one during the week.
Or you can punch the womanthology project right in it’s face and continue on.
absolutely delightful work. seems like you absorbed a chunk of jack kirby and mad magazine on the way here. very fine art and wonderfully twisted characters.
am i the only one that reads the commander’s voice in that of Patrick Warburton every time i look at one of Coelasquid’s strips?
Many people do despite being told he’s written with a Beetlejuice accent.
Haha awesome I’ve always thought of him as having a Marcus Fenix type voice, which is close enough to Beetlejuice. Yes, I realise that the last comment on this page was 8 months ago.
Joney’s face in that last panel is the BEST
Huh. You know, this style actually seems a bit cleaner than the normal posts. Sorry, but it be true.
But your comic was amazing already, so please keep up the lulz.
Joe
Pure Gold!
I have the sudden urge to go ‘AAAAAAAAWWWW’ because of the scene, and break out in evil laughter because of Jones’ grin in the end.
Both at the same time…
But I still don’t get what her face in the last panel MEANS. I can read it as annoyance, evil satisfaction, the “me gusta” face, or probably ten other things… and I just can’t decide!